


people all have something they want to protect, or else they aren't people

by SerpentineJ



Category: Gintama
Genre: M/M, first half is angst second half is humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 08:47:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13948032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerpentineJ/pseuds/SerpentineJ
Summary: "Tax-thief," Gintoki rasps. "What are you doing here?""Why can you already talk in full sentences?" Hijiata mutters. "I was hoping you'd stay knocked out a little longer."





	people all have something they want to protect, or else they aren't people

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: mmm i taste it

Hijikata has never seen the Shiroyasha in action.

That's not to say he's never seen Gintoki fight. He's seen the damn idiot slice his way through countless enemies with that stupid wooden sword. Gintoki in battle should be a familiar sight to him. 

This is different.

A series of events had transpired. A rogue gang of crap-killers and rough-neckers has taken Otose hostage, under the impression that she held the most power of the Four Devas. The Shinsengumi had gotten wrapped up in the investigation, and Gintoki has been missing since Catherine had found the note the kidnapper had left on the clean wooden surface of the bar.

They've tracked down the kidnapper's rat hole. When they pull up outside the place, a crappy, falling-apart warehouse in the equally crappy construction blocks on the outskirts of Kabukicho, it's nighttime. A waning moon shines weakly in the dark sky. A familiar silver moped skids up next to them.

"Bastard." Hijikata mutters. "He's riding on the ass of our hard work-"

The man who gets off the moped is not Gintoki.

"Crap," Shinpachi says, and that's all anyone can say before Gintoki whips his sword from his waist quicker than any movement Hijikata has seen before, and takes off in a running sprint into the darkened warehouse. "Gin-san!"

"Yorozuya!" Hijikata shouts, and the four of them- him, Sougo, the China girl, and Shimura- race in after him, because the warehouse is probably full of bruiser guys and ronin and he's going to get himself killed, Shiroyasha or not. They plunge into the building, and Hijikata swings his sword, and he sees Sougo and the China girl fighting back-to-back, and Shimura holding up against an opponent twice his size. He looks around. His eyes adjust to the half-darkness. In the sky above, the wispy clouds clear away from the weak moon, and a sliver of dull moonlight shines in through a hole in the roof of the warehouse-

-he catches sight of Gintoki.

Gintoki is fighting like nothing he's ever seen before. His white yukata is stained with blood. He's screaming as he slices, a raw and terrible sound among the shouts and clashing of metal on metal. He's picked up a real sword somewhere, probably off one of the dead ronin, and its blade glints in the wavering moonlight, dripping with blood. His hair glows white. His face is stained with spatters of blood and his lips are drawn back, teeth bared like a beast.

This is the Shiroyasha. Hijikata has never considered fully the implications of Gintoki being the kind of man who was born around blood and rotting flesh. Every glimmer of the sweets-loving boss of Odd Jobs is gone. 

Hijikata takes care of a couple more opponents and struggles to fight his way through the mass of enemies towards Gintoki. Gintoki fights like a man possessed, his eyes wide and his mouth open and every fiber of his body burning, muscle tearing itself from bone. He looks more like a wild animal than a man. A samurai gets him in the arm, nearly takes the damn thing off- Gintoki doesn't even seem to notice the blood spurting from his flesh, or the countless crimson-stained tears in his clothes, or the blood that's soaking his silver hair as he cuts down everyone around him.

Hijikata stops. He feels the cold chill of fear in the pit of his stomach. Sakata Gintoki isn't present in this moment. The man before him is something entirely different.

"Hey, that's not funny..." He mutters. "How are we supposed to reign that thing in?"

The China girl launches an enemy in his direction, and he reacts in time to slice the man in half, blood spattering across his face. He whirls around. The objective is to rescue the old lady and purge this den of criminals. 

He catches sight of a man standing on a small platform above them, supported by the crumbling beams of the warehouse. Otose is tied up and gagged by him. 

"There!" He shouts. "The old lady!"

Gintoki's eyes swivel upwards. His whole body is suddenly focused on the old woman and her captor. There's something wild in his bloodshot eyes and shaking limbs. His arms are dripping with his opponents' blood. The floor around him is spattered with it. He dredges through, black boots through the slick mess, bodies all around him, and Hijikata's sword arm starts to shake, though he's not sure why. Gintoki is only a couple years older than him, but in this moment he seems like something violently ethereal.

He bolts towards the rickety wooden stairs to the upper platform. Hijikata watches the kidnapper scream at him, hold a shaking blade to Otose's throat, and Gintoki cuts him down with one movement, lets his body fall off the platform, drops to his knees by Otose, panting hard.

Down below, most of the men are dead. Over half of them are recognizably Gintoki's work. Sougo's blade slices through the last two ronin, and as their bodies fall to the ground, Gintoki collapses.

~~~~~~

Gintoki wakes up on a familiar-feeling futon.

He opens his eyes slowly.

"God," he groans.

"Don't get up," a voice says. It's Hijikata. Gintoki turns his head to the side.

"Tax-thief," he rasps. "What are you doing here?"

"Why can you already talk in full sentences?" Hijiata mutters. "I was hoping you'd stay knocked out a little longer."

Gintoki glares.

"Isn't this Shinpachi's house?" He says roughly.

Hijikata shrugs. He lights a cigarette. He watches Gintoki through narrowed eyes.

"The Shimuras and the China girl are looking after the old lady at the bar." He says. "They didn't want to move you, so they told me to keep an eye on you until they got back."

"Why you, of all people." Gintoki sighs.

"That's a hell of a way to talk to someone who did you a favor," Hijikata says.

Gintoki makes an annoyed noise.

There's silence.

"That was a hell of a fight." Hijikata mutters. He stubs out his cigarette in the ashtray the Shimura kid had given him before they had left. 

Gintoki ignores him.

"Are you stupid?" Hijikata continues, looking down at him suspiciously. "Why the hell did you run in there alone?"

Gintoki grits his teeth.

"It's not really your business, is it." He growls.

Hijikata kicks him in the side. Gintoki yelps.

"Is that how you treat the injured!?" He shouts. "I should sue you!"

Hijikata glares at him.

Gintoki glares back.

"You're such a damn sketchy guy," Hijikata sighs, letting the matter go for now- not something he would usually do, but he's not usually looking after a critically injured idiot war hero-criminal, either. 

Gintoki makes an irritated noise and turns his head away.

"Well," Hijikata says, almost under his breath, it's so quiet, "it's good you're back to your usual annoying self."

Gintoki turns to look at him. A slight smile creeps up his face.

"You saying you missed me, Hijikata-kun?" He drawls in that particularly annoying way that pushes all Hijikata's frustration buttons. Hijikata grits his teeth.

"You're taking advantage of the fact that I can't beat an injured man, aren't you," he says.

"You literally just kicked me," Gintoki points out.

"It's your fault for pissing me off," Hijikata replies.

"Isn't that the rationalization they use for excusing domestic violence?" Gintoki says, and Hijikata almost punches him in the face. "Hey, hey, I'm kidding!"

"Shut up." Hijikata mutters, rubbing his forehead. "Talking to you gives me a headache. God."

Gintoki chuckles.

"Well, if I can't have a pretty nurse looking after me," he sighs, "I guess you'll do."

"Want me to kill you?" Hijikata says.

~~~~~~

The others come back within a few hours, and Hijikata takes his leave, waving away the Shimuras' (and Kondo, who pops up out of nowhere before being promptly taken care of by Otae) attempts to get him to stay for tea or something. Gintoki whines about being left in Otae's care, but the Shimura kid is a decent nursemaid, so Hijikata has no sympathy. 

~~~~~~

That night, Hijikata lies on his futon in the Shinsengumi sleeping quarters, staring at the darkened ceiling. His thoughts are filled with blood-soaked silver hair, and the glint of moonlight on wild eyes, and the sickly shine of a blade.

"Damn." He mutters. "Why won't that guy get out of my head?"

Sakata Gintoki always finds ways to irritate him, it seems.

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: Gintoki protecting otose w his life really gets me i rewatched four devas arc today
> 
>  
> 
> [tumblr](http://kimishitaatsushi.tumblr.com)  
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/serpentinej)


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